Sunday, October 21, 2007

How to Avoid Mortgage Foreclosure Scam

Are you facing problems with mortgage payments? Is your house slipping away from your hands? According to the data from RealtyTrac, more than one million homeowners have faced foreclosure this year, 27% more than this time last year. The following basic tips will help you to avoid mortgage foreclosure scam before it happens:
  • - Do not ignore your problem.
  • - Before making any decision of mortgaging your property you must know the mortgage rights.
  • - Be on guard by reviewing your finances and see where you can cut your spending to be able to make your mortgage payments regularly.
  • - Pay your mortgage debts before any other household expenditure or credit cards' payments or unsecured debts.
  • - When you are not able to pay your mortgage payments use your assets. You can sell your car, jewelry or a whole life insurance policy to help you reinstate your loan.
  • - Preserve your good credit. As your future ability to purchase item, property or rent requires a credit check. Keeping your credit rating from getting blemishes is very important.

Besides the above-mentioned basic tips the Federal Housing Administration, US Department of Housing and Urban Development have recently framed out the following guidelines:

Immediately contact a house-counseling agency if you are not comfortable to talk with your lender. Most FHA counselors are free of cost or cost very little. A counselor can help you review your financial situation, learn which workout arrangement is suitable for your family, protects you from future credit problems, provides you information on services and programs available in your area. Determine the ideal options available and negotiate with your lender.

Contact your lender as soon as possible. A lender will help you prepare a budget plan to ensure that you meet your monthly payments and see that you follow it strictly. This plan will show how much money is available to meet your mortgage payments. Do not hide any form of information from your lender. Make sure you read all the mails and letters send to you.

FHA loans also provide alternatives and ways for borrowers to get help. These loans include mortgage modifications, special forbearances allowances, and other actions you can take to avoid foreclosure. Your lender has to follow FHA servicing guideline and regulation when it comes to dealing with FHA loans. You can report to the FHA's National servicing Center if the lender is not responsive.

Explore loan workout solutions with your lender when your problem is temporary. If it appears that your situation is long-term or will permanently affect your ability to bring your account current, if keeping your home is not an option, your lender will be willing to discuss and make arrangements to bring your loan current.

A forbearance option is often combined with a reinstatement when you know you will have enough money to pay, to bring the account current at a given date. The money may be from a hiring bonus, investment, insurance settlement, or tax refund. You can also make an agreement to pay the portion of the past dues plus your regular monthly payment each month until you are caught up.

One should be very careful with predatory lending schemes, as there are many frauds that will try to deceive you. Borrowers facing unemployment and or foreclosure are targets of predatory lenders because here the borrowers are desperate to find any solution.